Totó la Momposina was a Colombian singer, dancer, and folklorist, born Sonia
Bazanta Vides on August 1, 1940, in Talaigua Nuevo, Bolívar, Colombia. Raised in
a family of musicians from the Mompox region, she began performing in the 1960s
with her family ensemble and built her work around the Caribbean Colombian
traditions of cumbia, bullerengue, porro, mapalé, chalupa, sexteto, and tambora.
After representing Colombian culture at the 1982 Nobel Prize ceremony for
Gabriel García Márquez, she spent time in Paris, studied music and dance, and
recorded her first album with Totó La Mo...